Journeys

I’ll never know how he found his way into my possessions. Half a rusted lantern and a tatter of penant were all there was and yet the ghostly spirit hounded me.

I noted to make time to try and communicate with it someday, should it prove to be a manifestation of spiritual energy and not a hallucinatory emanation from the Mad King.

Cohorts within the Bubblegum Brigade coerced me to join them in assaulting the Mad King’s private sanctum. I assured them it was a bad idea, that nothing good could come of this and yet they insisted. I won’t say I regretted the choice though I won’t admit I enjoyed it either.

I stopped in Vanjir’s Stead briefly, having just come East from Demon’s Maw. Provisions were high on my list and as I prepared to trek North, back above the treeline, I chatted briefly with the few Norn dwelling there.

Seemed Ice Wurms were causing some trouble at the edge of their stead and they were paying well for people to see about dissuading the abnormally active beasts. A task I assured them I’d look into as I headed North. I was searching the edge of Dredgehaunt for anything of note as necessitated by my membership with the Oder of Whispers.

I’m no Durmand Priory researcher so I keep my ramblings to a minimum. But I’ve begun to think they followed the Asura. Anywhere I find Asura I’ve also found Skritt. The number of them vary but the presence is unmistakable.

What confuses me is the varied nature of their hostility. Some are cutthroat merchants. Most are aggressively territorial.

I wasn’t terribly surprised then as I crossed the Rootangles and neared Ruins of the Unseen. The area was rife with Skritt activity as they swarmed out of their burrows and attacked anyone within sight.

When it was done, I was told by a nearby Asura that this happens often as a side effect of his research. I didn’t inquire on his research, Asuran theology is heavily mixed into their academic teachings and I wasn’t in the mood for another debate on The Eternal Alchemy.

It should be noted I don’t like Lornar’s Pass. I hate it in fact. If the biting winds didn’t chill to the bone, then the sheer drops from thousand-foot passes makes travel extremely treacherous. Nestled between Grawl, Dredge and the nested Griffon’s, there aren’t a lot of safe havens to make camp if that wasn’t bad enough the lowlands are rife with wurms. Larger than what you might see in Queensdale which alone makes me long for warmer climes.

I’d tell you why I was there but I can’t recall at this time. I’m sure it will come back to me.

To call it a forest is to extend the dotted line around your understanding of the term ‘Forest’ and move it back a few leagues. Caledon is more of a coastal swamp with occasional dry hills crawling with whatever climbed out of the deeps in the Sea of Sorrows.

It was there I met Lithiaria, a mesmer like myself. She was struggling with grubs the size of a Kryta Hound. I was looking for something I wasn’t sure about so I stopped briefly to help her. It didn’t take long for her to request my company while she assisting the various people living in Caledon. Roughly three days passed while we battled Nightmare Court, giant spiders and Skales. I was still looking when we took some brief time to camp out at a fort in the middle of the forest and rest briefly.

I met a trader, moving west into Metrica Province, who was able to trade me various items I needed to finish my tailoring project, the Masquerade. It cost me greatly, but I feel a price worth paying. We’ll see how the long-term amusement holds me.